I would bet that most students under age of 25 are very aware of the police practices surrounding them. At any age, for that matter, most people are generally familiar with the local police force. Often times, we even learn the names and faces of officers. For whatever reason, a cop earns a dash of "celebrity status" simply because of the nature of his work. The fact that an officer is likely to be front and center during big moments in the community also attributes to his or her notoriety.
Ideally, a hero will be created in a daring of act of bravery. Officer YouKnowWho comes around the corner in the heat of a hostage situation and subdues a criminal flawlessly all thanks to impeccable academy training. He smiles for the camera and claims it's "all in a day's work." Next, our hero would be seen from the ghetto. This officer of justice drives through the streets hauling away drug runners, pimps, prostitutes and even the occaisional young hoodlum carrying a blunt and can of spray paint. The young hoodlum would get a motivational speech from our hero which would forever change his life, prompting the youth to do his homework, pick up a basketball, or even volunteer at the elderly center. This is what we expect from our law enforcement.
Realistically, we should see that cops are human. They probably don't love going to work everyday. What they do love, however, is appearing to be cops. And what better way to look like a cop than making sure your police log is full of activity. So they find the easy stuff like traffic violations, parking tickets, and teenage loiterers.
What aggravates me the most, is the amount of actual crime in Fitchburg, that city cops are afraid of. Not even that they're afraid, I don't think they want to go through the effort it would take to stop drug dealers and gangs that exist all throughout the city. It's so much easier for a cop to drive around in his cruiser with the window down and listen for a party. The cops know where we party at FSC. It's not a big school so there's no more than 15 apartment where FSC students dwell. How much easier is it for a cop to walk into a house full of college kids trying to hang out with their friends and arrest the kids that live there. All they have to say is that they were "disturbing the peace." At least, that's the count that my roommate and I were charged on. (I'll tell that story another day.)
Why would a cop want to spend some hours on foot in front of the ghetto? With the prostitutes, and gang members with guns? They search FSC students on the spot on a weekend night. (Well, the ones with backpacks.) The kids with backpacks get ID'd on the street, and if the student isn't 21 years old, the backpack gets searched. Why can't they do this on to the gang members on Green Street? Because they're scared of doing some real cop work, and as long as they're slapping the cuffs on someone, they'll look like cops.
Would this happen at any Ivy League school? Of course not. Why? Because these cops would run into a few "my dad's a lawyer" situations, and they'd be fucked for wrongful arrests. I go to a state school. You think anyone of my peers has the money to hire a lawyer and fight a "disturbing the peace" charge? They can barely pay for books.
So keep it up, Officer YouKnowWho. You look great.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
This actually makes alot of sense. I remember on a big party day last year two of my friends were having an arguement, about something or other, and this cop decideded that he had heard enough yelling. He told us all to "Shut up, and quiet down, because if he had to come back were were all getting booked." When I asked him for what he told me that no matter who yelled we were all getting arrested, and that was pretty much it. He ended up coming back again and flat out told me that I had to leave the building I was sleeping in. He wasn't going to arrest me, but I had to get out of there.
I'm not precisely sure where that reasoning comes into play, where does he have the jurisdiction to throw me out of someplace I'm staying? It's not like he was removing me from say, campus, just that house. I assumed it was easier to just leave for a few than get locked up (c) Akon. In hindsight I wonder what he would have booked me for had I just sat myself down....disturbing the peace probably, but either way it would have been ridiculous, because aside from my peace now one else was being disturbed.
At least he got that surge of power he felt like whe he was giving nerds wedgies in highschool.
This story took place February 2006. It was a cold, very cold february night. A few friends and myself were celebrating the 21st bday of one of our closet friend. the "gathering" had taken place at our townhouse. it was a theme party so most of the people who attended stayed the whole night.
It was past midnight and we had received a call from a friend living on highland telling us about a party at their house. So a bunch of us dressed and got ready to face the cold. I on the other hand a few drinks under, decided not to bother with a coat, they're for pussies. Mind you this would be the first time my roommate and myself had left the house the whole night *(important). about 20 of us left from the town houses up highland towards campus pizza.
as we crossed the street to the other side of highland, as a massive group, we noticed a cop driving towards us. we were only 2 houses away from where we needed to go. we all thought we could just scoot by the cop.
as the cop car approached and was only about 10 ft away from where our group was walking, the car suddenly came to a immediate stop. the officer of the car ran out as if his pants were on fire, grabbed my roommate 1 out of about 20, and threw her onto the hood of his car. while doing so he reach into the front of her sweetshirt pocket and grabbed a water bottle filled with wine (classy i know). he never once asked for an ID or to search her. he just threw her up against his car and cuffed her. the whole thing happened in about 15 seconds. at this time i looked behind me to see the group we were with had ran away.
after dropping and kicking my own water bottle aside i asked the officer politely, while i was in shock, as to what was happening, what exactly he was doing. this is when he screamed at me "i'm taking her in!!" (very NYPD blue of him) my poor roommate started to cry hestarically not really understanding what was happening to her. and just like that she was in the cop car and gone.
from what my roommate had told me later on that night, while in the cop car she continued crying and the cop just yelled at her the whole time. he yelled at her saying things like "i told you if i saw you out again i was goin to arrest you." as she continued to tell him that this was the first time she had been out all night. not only did he make her cry but made her feel bad about herself. he told her that she was stupid and to shut up. as they drove by the court house on the way to the police station, he laughed at her and told her this is where she would be spending the next day.
not only did this cop arrest my friend for no reason, but he pretty much abused her. is there really any reason for a cop to throw a young girl against a car and cuff her with out asking her for an ID or any kind of question? i think not.
as we sat in the court house the following day we noticed about 3 other FSC students who had been arrested the night before as well. the ladies who were in charge of check in laughed in our faces saying "haha guess theres a lot of FSCers today". yes mama real funny considering we're all college kids who decided to go out with some friends and have fun. lets laugh about the crack head or the rapist sitting next to me ha HA.
over all what happened that night should never have taken place. i guess cops just feel good about getting young college students to be on probation and pay fines to the outstanding town we call fitchburg.
I can't count the number of times I have been pulled over on campus for "rolling a stop sign", "speeding" or "touching the line" on a thursday or friday night. not to be ungreatful fo the work of any law enforcment- and I mean that, but policework on FSC's campus sometimes seems like more of a witch-hunt. amazingly, i have also seen situations where an officer would rather just not deal with a problem- my freshman year a girl was visiting a friend of mine and was out of control drunk by the end of the night, black out level- it wasn't pretty, and the officer kicked her off campus and ordered her to drive home! it was ridiculous, WE had to sneak her back into the building so she could sleep it off.
great idea for a blog
-40
eh. im not pro cop or anti cop. some cops are aHoles and others are just normal dudes doing their jobs...but either way some of the parties off campus do need a bit of attention because people get f'd up. and people have gotten shot and stuff.. so no thankyou. guns scare the crap outta me. But nice blog. interesting topic.
Post a Comment